Notice of Proposed Ozone Attainment Demonstration SIP Revision

Take notice that the State of New Jersey is proposing a revision to its State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Attainment and Maintenance of the 8-Hour Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). This proposed SIP revision includes four components. First, the proposed ozone SIP Revision addresses the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) regarding New Jersey’s plan for attaining the 2008 75 ppb 8-hour ozone NAAQS in its Northern New Jersey multi-state nonattainment area by its attainment date of July 20, 2021. Second, this SIP revision includes a Reasonably Available Control Technology (RACT) analysis to address both the 2008 75 ppb NAAQS and the 2015 70 ppb NAAQS. Third, this SIP revision addresses the requirements for New Jersey’s Nonattainment New Source Review (NNSR) permitting program for the 2008 75 ppb and 2015 70 ppb 8-hour ozone NAAQS and includes the required NNSR Program Compliance Certifications. Fourth, this SIP revision includes the State’s 2017 periodic emission inventory for criteria pollutants that will also be the base year inventory for the Reasonable Further Progress (RFP) demonstration for the 2015 70 ppb 8-hour ozone NAAQS. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection intends to submit the final SIP to the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a revision to New Jersey’s State Implementation Plan in accordance with CAA requirements for ozone nonattainment areas.

 

A copy of the Department’s proposed SIP revision is available on the Department’s website at https://www.nj.gov/dep/baqp/sip/siprevs.htm.

 

A public hearing concerning the Department’s proposed SIP revision will be conducted only if requested in writing by June 11, 2021. If no request for a public hearing is received, the hearing will be cancelled by a notice posted on the Department’s website at www.nj.gov/dep/baqp/. If a public hearing is requested, it will be held virtually on July 13, 2021 at 10:00am. If you are interested in joining the virtual public hearing, please email the Department at NJDEP-BAQP@njdepwptest.net with your contact information (name, telephone number, and email address) and whether you intend to provide oral testimony or not. The Department can then send you a link to a Microsoft Teams meeting, with a separate option for a telephone call-in line (for those without access to a computer that can connect to Microsoft Teams) and hearing guidelines. The link to the public hearing, telephone call-in number and hearing guidelines will also be posted on the Department’s website at: https://www.nj.gov/dep/baqp/sip/siprevs.htm. Note that this virtual public hearing will be recorded.

 

Written comments may be submitted by close of business, July 26, 2021. Please email comment(s) as a document attachment to: NJDEP-BAQP@njdepwptest.net and include a subject line as follows: “Ozone AD SIP-RACT-PEI Comments 2021-2” in the subject line of the e-mail.

If you have any questions about this notice, you can email your questions to NJDEP-BAQP@njdepwptest.net or call the Bureau of Evaluation and Planning at (609) 292-6722.